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Esprit Dior

20 JUNE - 25 AUGUST 2015

Seoul - Korea

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EXHIBITION

The Esprit Dior exhibition offers a glimpse into the extraordinary world of Christian Dior. His imagination, steeped in art; his relationships with the virtuosos of his time; the distinctive, sublime look that he created, collection after collection; his taste for 18th-century splendour and his sense of the extraordinary are told through creations past and present, and carried on by his talented successor, Raf Simons. The visitor discovers all the virtuosity of a deeply French label, a Parisian icon. The Dior Haute Couture workshops resemble a magician's den, while the perfumes are just as enchanting.

With the benefit of hindsight, Monsieur Dior's visionary genius is even clearer than ever. The elegance and splendour are intact; the contemporary nature of the creations, from 1947 to today, is striking. The creations take on all their dreamlike, artistic and cultural meaning through the works of six major Korean artists: Do-Ho Suh, Lee Bul, Heryun Kim, Kim Dong-Yoo, Kiwon Park and Seon-Ghi Bahk.In pointillist touches, dresses, perfumes, accessories, documents and photographs form the portrait of a fashion label like no other in the world and retrace the equally unique history of its privileged ties with the art world.

THEMES

THE LOOK

« A dress as I design it is a work of ephemeral architecture intended to glorify the proportions of the female body. »

On 12 February 1947, Christian Dior revolutionised the fashion world by creating a unique silhouette, soon to be dubbed the New Look, which accentuated the waist and hips and showcased the bust. The curve of the body was stylised, the body itself was idealised.

Over ten years, every season Christian Dior invented new lines that wrote the history of contemporary fashion and created a distinctive style unlike any other. The models presented demonstrate how, from his début until today, the couturier and his successors have worked as veritable clothing architects. Here we can read the history of female elegance, but also that of unrefuted boldness. Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano and Raf Simons took on the Dior look, making it their own in order to take it further, towards the modernity of their era.

DIOR AND HIS ARTIST FRIENDS

« I used to have a painting gallery. I looked after the paintings, through which the artists expressed their personality. Later, I too wanted to express myself in my own way and I started designing dresses. »

The dresses and works of art speak of the time when Christian Dior was developing his taste through contact with all those artists, who were also his friends, such as Christian Bérard, Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau. Wishing to pay tribute to these artists whom he admired ceaselessly, he created a number of dresses bearing their names.

When Christian Dior created his couture label, his vision, his sense of the construction of a garment and his artistic sensitivity instantly made him an incredible couturier. Architect, sculptor and painter at the same time, Dior created a world of enchantment and splendour for women. Beyond the spirit of an art lover, the work of a genuine artist is crafted.

Christian Dior's successors have striven to uphold this tradition and continue to draw inspiration from the founder's artistic world. Raf Simons, who has close ties with artists and is an art collector himself, chose to work with American artist Sterling Ruby right from his very first Haute Couture collection.

J'ADORE

« This subtle genius, special to our time and whose magic name is made up of Dieu and Or (God and gold). »

Dior rhymes with or (gold), as the artist and friend of Christian Dior remarked. The king of precious metals, gold was much more than a colour for the couturier: it was a symbol, that of French luxury and the most accomplished refinement. Furthermore, he would refer to the golden embroidery that adorned his dresses as "Versailles embroidery" in homage to the gold at the palace that never ceased to inspire him. From collection to collection, gold is used as an exterior sign of elegance, highlighting the line of a dress here, lending brilliance to a fabric there.

Over the next few decades, Christian Dior's beloved gold was used liberally by his successors in Haute Couture collections in the form of delicate embroidery. Transformed into a perfume, the precious metal is worn on the skin with J'Adore, embodied by Charlize Theron who struts through the gilded panelling of the Hall of Mirrors at the château of Versailles The gold of her dress, her golden hair and skin echo the chandeliers, bronzes and mirrors in a magical extravaganza of light.